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Your practical Dream System - $50K limit

I'll play:

Sonus Faber Olympia Nova V = $17K
Parasound JC5 = $5K
Nuprime Evolution Dac = $3.2K
Cambridge CXCv2 Transport =$600
Room Treatment & Cabling = $3K
Total = $26K

Not even trying to blow the whole wad as one could say go with the JC1+ monos for $17K and put a JC 2 BP preamp for $5K in the mix or hell bump up to the SF Serafinos for $30K. These sorts of spending dilemmas I would love to have :). Alas, in my present financial state I could not justify these sorts of expenditures.
 
I guess "practical" here means no $100K speakers, etc., but I'm going to add my own criteria for practicality. First, I want speakers that I can actually pick up and move by myself, and that do not dominate the room. Second, I want room correction capability. Third, I want to be able to play music from a server, stream high-res files, play CDs/SACDs, and preferably DVD-A. Fourth, my wife has to feel comfortable operating it. Finally - at the risk of losing my audiophile badge - no tubes and no vinyl.

The system I have now comes pretty close to my practical ideal: Benchmark DAC, preamp, and power amp, a Bluesound Vault 2i, and a miniDSP box running Dirac Live with digital input/output. An Oppo BDP-105D plays discs and serves to link this 2-channel setup to a minimal HT setup. Speakers are Salk Silk Monitors on sand-filled Atlantis stands with a Hsu ULS-15 sub. Cables are a mix of Benchmark and Analysis Plus. Altogether about $17K. If I had more $$ to put into it, I'd probably have gone with Joseph Audio Pulsars and a pair of REL subwoofers, and an NAD M50.2 in place of the Bluesound Vault. This would still leave me short of spending $50K, but the remainder of the money would be put to good use on dry red wine to drink while listening :) And I could really use a new listening sofa.

This is an interesting exercise, which I've been very fortunate to pretty much go through in real life. But I'll confess to reading the Recommended Components feature in Stereophile and developing fantasy systems in my head
 
RichPA said:
The system I have now comes pretty close to my practical ideal: Benchmark DAC, preamp, and power amp
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I've always been intrigued by that amplifier. I didn't realize it was that small, either. It sure looks like a Hafler DH-220 sized amplifier from its proportions, heat sinks, etc. So, do you have the LA4 or the HPA4 for a preamp? How do you like it? Does it improve upon the DAC's volume control straight in?

I'm realizing that folks' actual systems are as interesting as their dream systems, so thanks for posting those, too, everyone.
 
sqlsavior said:
I've always been intrigued by that amplifier. I didn't realize it was that small, either. It sure looks like a Hafler DH-220 sized amplifier from its proportions, heat sinks, etc. So, do you have the LA4 or the HPA4 for a preamp? How do you like it? Does it improve upon the DAC's volume control straight in?
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I have the LA4 (no need for the headphone feature of the HPA4). It is a huge ergonomic improvement over running the DAC directly into the amp, and to my surprise it is also significant sonic improvement. Benchmark said it would be, but it still surprised me.
 
Roughly list prices here on factory new items, but I can get an accommodation on a couple of the items, and others may sell for less than list price. With the main components plus the accessories (interconnects, power cables, room treatments, rack) this would come in around $50K before any discounts.

Preamp: VTL 2.5i with phono stage: $5,000
Amp: VTL ST-150: $6,000
Speakers: Martin-Logan Impression 11A: $10,000
Digital: PS Audio DirectStream $6,800
NAS: Qnap with drives: $1,000
Turntable: Clearaudio Performance DC with Clarify arm: $4,000 (or Technics SL1200G, same price)
Cartridge: Nagaoka MP-500 $800
Power: PS Audio P15 Power Plant regenerator: $7,500
Interconnects and power cords: assortment of Cardas cables (rest of budget)
Room treatments: GIK Acoustics (rest of budget)
Rack: unknown (rest of budget)

Adding a set of subwoofers and a crossover/EQ for a distributed bass array adds another $4000.

Not much would change if I went with used components--I'd still buy some of these components new, but would substitute Conrad-Johnson monoblocks and preamp for the VTLs, and perhaps the Martin-Logan with the Summit X, a former top-of-the-series model.
 
Why not let us have fun dreaming up our practical dream $50k systems? Nobody's forcing anyone to participate if they don't want to. :dunno:
 
GChief said:
Same here. It’s kind of nice, gives me perspective on how close I can get. :D
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Ya I know what you mean but they have the money and don't really know the difference at all! They listen to my System but it's too cheap for them but hey even they realize it sounds pretty good to them for what it is:)
 
BOUXY said:
Ya I know what you mean but they have the money and don't really know the difference at all! They listen to my System but it's too cheap for them but hey even they realize it sounds pretty good to them for what it is:)
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My family (uncle) does know what’s up so his set-ups are pretty freaking amazing. He has a separate detached building with 3 rooms set up. It’s like going to Valhalla :rockon:
 
musichal said:
$50k? One system? Honestly, that is simply more guilt than I can tolerate...Yes, I'm being serious. Anybody else?
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Guilt? As for me, listening to music provides lots of emotional satisfaction and soothes the soul. My passion is a life long one. :)

musichal said:
I'd give away our '08 Honda Civic we bought new in '07 and thought we would finally hit 50,000 miles last year, but now it looks like it will be next year. Runs smooth, everything works right, but paint has faded.
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Our '01 S2000 runs perfectly at 109k with original clutch!
 
musichal said:
...and the thought that I could have spent less on myself and given more to charity.
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I most certainly agree with the sentiment of giving. Wifey and I contribute to a range of charitable organizations every year and have fully endowed two scholarships at her university.

Everything is relative to one's blessings. :)
 
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